Good morning Las Vegas! After a super fun Tuesday, we’re looking forward to a couple of attractions / events today that, once again, highlight some of the “over the top” this city has to offer. But first, coffee ☕️! Our last couple of mornings have been spent enjoying our view over South LV. We were at first hopeful of a mid-strip overlook, but have since found the airport traffic, mauzy sunrise and South Strip are far more our speed.
This morning’s first adventure started with a 7:30 AM pick-up at the Elara. We had back and forth e-mails on this booking, so I was hoping all was as expected and communication was clear. We purchased this package online, being Hoover Dam SUV Tours from Canyon Tours. Thankfully, all tumbled as expected. Holy shuttle… sexy pink SUV with “Las Vegas Pink Jeep Tours“ written on the exterior rolled in (we knew we were good when that came into sight)! Our guide and driver, Leah, was right on time and after some passenger pick up (a Group of 10) all were on the way. Great info from the guide as she articulated some city based “dirt” (re Formula 1 coming to town) as well as the history of communities, geography and attractions all the way to our destination, the Hoover Dam.
I’m not sure the pictures I’ve seen of the Hoover Dam, nor ours, quite do the site justice. It’s really an impressive site with lots of underlying layers, be it Science & Tech, Politics, Economics, or History. All in, we did the video intro at the VIC, underground piping/generators as well as the observation deck/top of the dam. Solid visit. We decided early into the visit that we should in fact re-watch an American Experience – Hoover Dam Episode, as I definitely felt like I didn’t know enough of the “story”. There were some favourite glimpses for us. A great discussion occurred highlighting workers taking those hurt/killed on site to the Arizona side of dam where the state gov’t (the one not on the take) would award benefits. We were also curious about tensions around the “naming”, as the Hoover Dam moniker was switched to Boulder Dam during the Roosevelt presidency, only to be reverted after his death. Ah… politics. We had multiple guides on site, all were great (but especially Eric). A solid visit!
(ps. After watching the AE Version on Hoover Dam when we got home, we both thought the tour we took was incredibly “sanitized”, neglecting much of the info regarding worker conditions, such as strike breaking, lack of basic safety and worksite deaths).
The region we drove through felt much like the set of a good old duster. The flora, geology and jagged ridges are difficult to keep from staring at! I was also a bit smitten with the very simple art installations found along the route highlighting workers from the dam site… perhaps shadows of this Depression era mega project. We slipped home fairly quickly, and were dropped off at the Elara by noon… all in a 4 hr excursion. As an aside, gotta say that there are times when you appreciate “better manners” as one gent taking the tour could have used a real lesson. We roll over that fairly easily, but don’t necessarily feel the need to hear it! Such is the shared tour I guess… Enough said!
Oh boy… throwing on the foodie hat, we went on a real search for something yummy today. Ramen Katanya is located near the Horseshoe Casino, and had great online reviews. It was busy, with no reservation process, but we didn’t wait long for entry with service shortly thereafter! We ordered a Ramen & a Curry and sampled both. Huge bowls of goodness soon arrived and we nommed it up pretty quickly. We had great service… although some folks around us had gotten lost in the shuffle of a very busy day. For us, a good sign of a great meal out is the desire to want to recreate when we get home. This offering is definitely on our growing list to try! Yep… Foodie Highlight for Day 5!
Janie teaches IB History at DrJHGillis in Antigonish… and a huge part of the course content revolves around the Cold War. We have visited some really amazing attractions around the world, whether it be the DDR Museum in Berlin, Che’s Memorial in Santa Clara, the Hospital in the Rock Nuclear Bunker Museum in Budapest or the Communist History Tour we joined in Prague. So, when we found out about the Atomic Museum in Vegas we quickly added the venue to our itinerary. It was a bit off the Strip area and a walk (which we were ready to take on after the big meal) seemed perfect. We hoped the location might support visitors generally interested in the content, as opposed to Strip walk by’s.
The Atomic Museum offers a great history lesson that focuses on the nuclear era, with timelines charting early beginnings in the 1940’s through to the end of weapons testing in the 1990’s. Artefacts, period video/photography, informative displays, and interactive exhibits are all included as methods of representation. Janie got some excellent primary document tips, fun ideas on the nuclear age in popular culture, some keenly created timelines busted into decades and a few swag pieces for classroom decor. I saw an original “enigma” machine, a German WWII coding device. That’s a good visit! 🚀
We hustled back to the Elara via Uber at around 4:00 PM, knowing our evening was just beginning. Lots still to go in this day! On tap tonight are the PAC-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament Session 2 games at 6:00 PM… and we have tix! Toshiba Plaza at T-Mobile was hopping with sounds of university bands, excited basketball fans and energetic refreshment sales folks. For our part, we weren’t even sure of the seedings when we purchased, so neither of us even knew who was on the court. Regardless, we’re hoping for some good hoops this evening.
Game #1 of the evening saw #10 seed Stanford matched against #7 California Golden Bears. We decided to root for the Bears… based solely on the fact Cal has two Canadian kids in the starting 5. Cal led the entire game until it got tied up with 16.6 seconds left! OT solved it with Cal falling apart, through both a lack in confidence and an abundance of fouls, and Stanford taking the win! Perhaps the highlight was “Go Tyler” though… at halftime some dude hits a layup, free throw, 3-pointer and Half court shot in 76 seconds to win $760 bucks in gas cards! 🏀
Game #2 fell to Utah and Arizona State, the respective #6 and #11 seeds. Utah had created quite a separation by halftime, and was dominating the court. There were kids that really owned the floor this evening… some with the potential to end up at the next level. Although lots of empty seats in T-Mobile, we held court in a great spot to watch the game and loved the cozy seats and Jumbotron for plays we’d missed! It seemed a natural extension of one of our many trips to see Coach K Court at home and enjoying our basketball “date nights” at StFX.
Well now, what’s the last night in a new city without tumbling into a refreshment or two! The Nine Fine Irishmen fit the bill… with some music, a little Irish Dancing and special dark beer. Ales like these are expensive on the Strip, however, so it was a quick sip and homeward. Following a pit stop for supplies, we settled in at the Elara shortly before midnight, relaxing in front of the 50th story view, doing some next day travel homework and putting up some weary feet (another 20,000 plus step day)… tired but knowing we’d put in a full day!
No shortage of activities in Vegas!!
Interesting basketball games and the Nine Fine Irishmen was a perfect spot to end the evening . I arrived in Summerside this afternoon. Beautiful weather and drive!
Hi Mom, glad you had great travel weather.
There’s a lot of fun things to do (and avoid 🤓) in Las Vegas. A great city for events! You might need ear plugs though 😜.